Lagrangian eddy tracking reveals the Eratosthenes anticyclonic attractor in the eastern Levantine basin

Abstract. Statistics of anticyclone activity and trajectories in the southeastern Mediterranean sea over the period 2000–2018 is created using the DYNED atlas, which links the automated mesoscale eddy detection by the AMEDA algorithm with in situ oceanographic observations. This easternmost region of the Mediterranean sea, delimited by the Levantine coast and Cyprus, has a complex eddying activity, which has not yet been fully characterized. In this paper we use Lagrangian tracking to investigate the eddy fluxes and interactions between different subregions in this area. We find that the southeastern Levantine area is isolated, with no anticyclone exchanges with the western part of the basin. Moreover the anticyclonic structure above the Eratosthenes seamount is identified as being an anticyclone attractor, differentiated from other anticyclones and staying around this preferred position up to four years with successive mergings. Colocalized in situ profiles inside eddies provide quantitative information on their subsurface structure and show that similar surface signatures correspond to very different physical properties. Despite interannual variability, the so-called Eratosthenes attractor stores a larger amount of heat and salt than neighbouring anticyclones, in a deeper subsurface anomaly that usually extend down to 500 m. This suggests that this attractor could concentrate heat and salt from this sub-basin, which will impact the properties of intermediate water masses created there.